Car troubles - Any ideas?

[Luke49783]

I've got a 2010 Chevrolet Malibu, just shy of 75,000 miles. Went out to get coffee with my wife this morning and was pulling up to a stop light on our way home. Suddenly the "look at the gauge cluster" chime goes off, as if it's warning me that I'm low on fuel. Right at the same time, the car started to shudder. I looked down to find the Check Engine light, Stability Control light, and tire pressure low light (I don't have TPMS sensors installed at the moment) all on. Additionally, the Driver Information Center was cycling between "Check ESC", "Traction Control", and "Reduced Engine Power".

I limped it the couple of miles home with little power or acceleration and backed it into a good position for a tow. I shut the engine off then started it again and it was still shuddering.

My first thought is a sensor issue, throttle position sensor maybe, otherwise I have no idea. On the upside, my GM Protection Plan extended warranty is paying for itself!

Anyone had a similar experience with a GM vehicle?

 

[john parker]

Sounds like off to the analyzer with you! Sorry that I can't be any more help than that.

 

[Edcculus]

Sounds like a lot of stuff going on at once. I had similar symptoms years ago on my Protege when my ignition coil went bad.

Off the top of my head, it sound like it may be a bad oxygen sensor as well. Good thing you have the protection plan! My father in law, who worked on cars his whole life says you can never go wrong getting the extended warranties or protection plans from the dealer. That at AAA.

 

[Luke49783]

Sounds like off to the analyzer with you! Sorry that I can't be any more help than that.

Definitely!

Sounds like a lot of stuff going on at once. I had similar symptoms years ago on my Protege when my ignition coil went bad.

Off the top of my head, it sound like it may be a bad oxygen sensor as well. Good thing you have the protection plan! My father in law, who worked on cars his whole life says you can never go wrong getting the extended warranties or protection plans from the dealer. That at AAA.

The fact that it was so many different things kind of blew my mind. The tire pressure sensor sort of makes sense since I don't have sensors on the car, but I park close enough to where they are (on my stock wheels) that it picks them up from time to time. I suppose that error was probably already in the stack.

I've become a big believer in the extended warranty. I had one pay for itself twice over on my last vehicle and I'm getting close to breaking even on this one. With all of the various systems in cars now, there's enough to go wrong that it's a good bet.

 

[cleanshaved]

I had similar, all the warning lights would come on, traction control would turn off etc etc (engine still work ok though). Mine turned out to be a faulty ABS module . This was said to be a common fault and failed at a certain distance approx 150000km if I remember right.
The unit was repaired and the car has done another 70,000K's since with no problems.
Have you tried restarting it since?
Take the car in and have the fault code checked.

Oh my car is a Holden (Aussie car) but they are owned by GM and has a V6 Ecotec engine.

 

[emt88]

My ex girlfriend had an 04 Malibu that always had cooky stuff like that going on. Various lights, car would not start sometimes/die other times. I finally tracked the problem back to the ignition not storing the chipped key info for longer than a week. Swapped out the ignition and all the issues stopped. Then she dumped me lol.

 

[Luke49783]

Wife and I went to leave the house in our other car ('04 Grand Prix) and found that the battery was dead. Not a huge surprise considering we haven't driven it most of the winter due to the vent fan not working, so I tried the Malibu again to give the Grand Prix a jump, started up and ran fine, no shuddering like it had on restart earlier.

I took it to the store earlier this evening and while it's running better, no warnings other than a check engine light, there's definitely something going on, so I'll be calling the dealership tomorrow. Issue I'm having is that the dealership that I bought it from, and prefer, is 40 miles from where I live. There's another in the town that I live in, but it's much smaller and will take longer to fix (estimate just to get to it for a vent fan issue a couple months ago was 10 days). So, I'm hoping that my warranty will pay for a 40 mile tow.

Oh, also, I realized that the tire pressure sensor light being on is normal. It's always on since I don't have the sensors on the car, but I've gotten so used to it that I don't even notice anymore.

 

[Steve in Shalimar]

If it's under GM Protection Plan, why not just take it to a dealer and have them sort it out?

Alternately, AutoZone will usually pull the trouble codes for free if you ask them to.

In some ways, I miss the old days when we just replaced items (plugs, wires, rotor, distributor cap and fuel filter) when the engine ran rough. Now days its a whole different game.

 

[ouch]

Perhaps your Thelman wire is corroded.

 

[DoctorShavegood]

I hate electrical Gremlins. All of the Ford's I've owned had door ajar light problems. In my Ford Explorer you would be driving down the highway at night and the dome light would come on. Then the door ajar light would come, then it would start chiming at you.

Be on the safe side and look to see if there is a potato stuck in the exhaust pipe. Oh, and check the blinker fluid.

 

[jamesspo]

Given your distance from your dealership you should consider investing in an obd-ii scanner. They're simple to use, and will tell you what codes are present, and allow you to clear them if it's just something trivial, like gas tank cap left open. If the light is currently on continuously (no flashing), it's something that's not imminently fatal to the car, like egr valve going bad, fuel tank cap, etc. The more serious stuff will be flashing, and will put the car in "limp home mode". Given you were in a state of extremely low battery, this could be just a side effect of that. If you happen to have an Autozone where you live, they'll read the code for you for free. Most any repair shop would be willing to do that as well, I'd imagine.

 

[john parker]

Believe O'Reilly's will read the codes for free, too. Might check if there is one close to you.

 

[Highspeedlane]

I hate electrical Gremlins. All of the Ford's I've owned had door ajar light problems. In my Ford Explorer you would be driving down the highway at night and the dome light would come on. Then the door ajar light would come, then it would start chiming at you.

Be on the safe side and look to see if there is a potato stuck in the exhaust pipe. Oh, and check the blinker fluid.

Funny, years ago we had a '96 Ford Windstar and you could be driving down the highway and all of a sudden all the interior lights would come on, chimes would start ringing and the alert that the slider was open would come on. I would remove some surface corrosion from the door contacts and it would go away for a week or two, only to return when you least expected it.

Then the fuel line rotten and it started dripping gas (this was all at about 65K miles) and the mechanic quoted us $1500 to replace the line so we just had it towed to the dealer and used it for a trade-in.

 

[Rockminer]

I used to own a 1958 Plymouth Fury

 

[Luke49783]

Thanks for all of the responses, guys!

After talking to both the dealership that I bought it from (40 miles from home near my office) and the one near home, I've got an appointment for Monday at the dealership near my office. Apparently the fact that the snow has finally cleared has made shops really busy, and I'd imagine tax return season is adding to that.

I wasn't keen on the idea of driving it that far, and really I'm still not, but we've found ourselves with that being our only working vehicle. My wife had a second interview for a job she's trying to get yesterday morning and we planned to drive the Grand Prix to it. We got about a mile from home and started smelling something funny. We decided to turn around and head home to take our chances with the Malibu since it had been fine the night before. On the way back to the house something started coming out of the vents in the car. I wasn't concerned because it seemed like steam, though my wife went into a panic thinking the car was on fire. Turns out the heater core in that car has sprung a leak. We ended up driving the Malibu and all was fine, so I'll be taking it straight to the dealership on Monday morning.

 

[SanKaloon]

Sounds like a lot of stuff going on at once. I had similar symptoms years ago on my Protege when my ignition coil went bad.

Off the top of my head, it sound like it may be a bad oxygen sensor as well. Good thing you have the protection plan! My father in law, who worked on cars his whole life says you can never go wrong getting the extended warranties or protection plans from the dealer. That at AAA.

Extended warranties are more important now than ever. Most companies (especially automotive) today use parts that are only supposed to last as long as the original warranty period. So if you have a 50,000 mile warranty, the engineers have chosen parts specifically that will last at least 50,000 miles. It's all about buying the lowest cost part that will last at least the warranty period. That's why ,now days, it seems like the car falls apart about the same time the warranty is up.

 

[Doraemon]

Extended warranties are more important now than ever. Most companies (especially automotive) today use parts that are only supposed to last as long as the original warranty period. So if you have a 50,000 mile warranty, the engineers have chosen parts specifically that will last at least 50,000 miles. It's all about buying the lowest cost part that will last at least the warranty period. That's why ,now days, it seems like the car falls apart about the same time the warranty is up.

If they made cars which lasted forever, they would sell far fewer new cars. When I buy a car nowadays, I try to buy one which will have the best resale value. A few years ago I bought a new Jeep Rubicon, and my best friend bought a new Lexus. His Lexus cost much more than my Jeep, but funnily enough, today my Jeep is worth nearly twice as much as his Lexus.

You can sometimes "reboot" your car's computer by disconnecting the battery cable over night, and then restarting the car the next day. The check engine light will likely remain on as the computer records that there was a problem. Often the light will go out after a few start/run/shutoff cycles with no other problems. But if there is a persistent problem, the light will remain lit.

 

[Edcculus]

Why don't they just install car computers to run off of Unix/Linux with a way to hook up a monitor to tell what is wrong? As tech savvy as the world is now, it seems asinine to have to take a car to an auto shop to "read the computer codes"

 

[SanKaloon]

Why don't they just install car computers to run off of Unix/Linux with a way to hook up a monitor to tell what is wrong? As tech savvy as the world is now, it seems asinine to have to take a car to an auto shop to "read the computer codes"

Don't take this as fact, but it's what I think it right. All cars today have to use a protocol known as OBD2. So you should be able to read all the codes yourself using an OBD2 reader.

The reason you don't see Linux /Unix in automotive ECUs is the amount of time the operating system takes to boot up. You see Linux in some some telematics units today, but it can take like 30 seconds to boot up. Because you are going to turn your key the second you get into your car, a 30 second boot up time is unacceptable. The ECU that injects fuel or turns your starter needs to boot up within milliseconds.

 

[jamesspo]

Don't take this as fact, but it's what I think it right. All cars today have to use a protocol known as OBD2. So you should be able to read all the codes yourself using an OBD2 reader.

The reason you don't see Linux /Unix in automotive ECUs is the amount of time the operating system takes to boot up. You see Linux in some some telematics units today, but it can take like 30 seconds to boot up. Because you are going to turn your key the second you get into your car, a 30 second boot up time is unacceptable. The ECU that injects fuel or turns your starter needs to boot up within milliseconds.

Yep, as I also mentioned in post 11, just grab a code reader from Wal-mart. And yeah, unlikely Linux would ever be used in the ECU - it's overkill in some ways (and slow to boot up), but lacks some of the real-time features needed for engine controls. Now Infotainment (audio, non-engine control features, etc)..that's a different story http://www.genivi.org/ . I know of at least the Genivi platform effort based on Linux. There may be others as well.